I’m Hallie Bateman. I’m a freelance writer and illustrator based in Los Angeles. My work has been published by The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Awl and others. My second book, What To Do When I’m Gone, comes out with Bloomsbury in April 2018.

What To Do When I’m Gone

Published by Bloomsbury, What To Do When I'm Gone is a collaboration between my mom, Suzy Hopkins, and me.

One sleepless night when I was 23, I had a sudden realization that someday my mom would not only die, but would continue to be absent as my life chugged onward. I felt I'd be paralyzed, unable to make the slightest decision. So the next morning, I asked her to write a book of instructions for me to follow, starting the day she dies. My mom laughed, and said she knew what I should do first: make fajitas and pour myself a stiff glass of whiskey. That idea wound up in the book, along with much more advice, funny and pragmatic and fully illustrated in gouache paintings by me.